I personally agree with Botstein’s theory that high school is over rated and used as an isolation or holding cell preventing students from witnessing the real world because in high school we are educated on the basics things that are needed to get into college (reading, writing, math, and science) but we are barely educated about the real world and how to survive in it. For example, in this article page 153, Botstein states " In no work-place, not even colleges or universities, is there such a narrow segmentation by chronology” His statement is absolutely correct. In the real world, you’ll be working with people who may be 2x older or 2x younger then you are, which as in high school, everyone in your grade is about your age unless they have stayed back or skipped a grade. In my opinion this is a setup! Principals, teachers and administrators know all too well that the real world is nowhere near setup like high school. Teaching children a strategy for 4 consecutive and expecting them after the 4 years are up to know automatically how to live and how to survive in the real world is in-human. Another example, on page 154 Botstein states “Elementary school should begin at age 4 or 5 and end with the sixth grade. We should entirely abandon the concept of middle school and junior high school. Beginning with the seventh grade, there should be four years of secondary education that we may call high school. Young people should graduate at 16 rather than 18.” I don’t entirely agree with this statement but i get where Botstein’s coming from. If students did graduate at 16 instead of 18, eventually we would adapt to the real world faster so when we actually turn 21 and are considered “adults” we will have an idea on how the real world works instead of being 18, on your own and blindsided because you weren’t taught the skills needed to survive....

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...Barbara Scrupski
WRTG 291
November 7, 2010
Leon Botstein’s “LetTeenagersTryAdulthood” talks about how high schools are obsolete and why they should be abolished. He feels that schools are run like a popularity contest and that high school is a waste of time. Botstein goes on to say that how well a school does in teams sports is how well the community will support that school. He also believes that high schools should be abolished since children don’t learn anything and the rules they play by in school are not the same rules of life. Botstein also thinks that since teenagers are maturing at earlier ages that they should be allowed to make adult decisions at earlier ages as will. According to Botstein, junior high schools should be removed and replaced with a K-10 school and the graduation age of 18 should be dropped to 16. Botstein states “At 16, young Americans are prepared to be taken seriously and to develop the motivations and interests that will serve them well in adult life.” (Botstein, 2007)Leon Botstein made some good points as to why high schools should be abolished, but getting rid of high schools is not the answer. He neglects to say that high schools are there to help teenagers develop the skills they need to succeed in life.
The American high school needs to make a couple of changes to be more effective in helping teenagers develop the skills to succeed...

..."LetTeenagersTryAdulthood"
Leon Botstein explains in his essay "LetTeenagersTryAdulthood", about how high school is run by the jocks, and how the community only supports the high school when the "varsity team" succeeds. Botstien talks about how the "...rules of high school turn out not to be the rules of life." He also talks about the whole "puberty" issue and how it effects today's teens, in school and in life. He explains how elementary school should start earlier, and you should graduate at the age of 16 instead of the age 18, because your body had matured faster then a century ago. Botstein also mocks the education system, stating that certain classes are to be taught only by the people who know the most about the class. Many students choose to go to a junior college or even stay home, because of the lack of pressure to attend a university. Finally Botstein states that 16 year olds should be focused on developing their "adult life" and that this country needs to realize the fact that the American education system has failed because of the out-to-date techniques that are being used.
Botstein is trying to convince the reader to give up on the old system of elementary school, junior high, and then high school, but instead a "new way" of schooling. He wants that reader to believe that because teenagers develop much faster than they did a...

...I.
a.
b.
Intro
Academic summary: ​
In “LetTeenagersTryAdulthood,”
Leon Botstein argues that the “American high school is
obsolete and should be abolished.” He explains that this
obsolescence is because high school does not represent the
way real life works, that real life is not a popularity contest
dominated by the best athletes like the hierarchies that he
claims exist among students and teachers in high schools.
Botstein suggests that our society sequesters teenagers in high
schools because adults “don’t like adolescents.” More options
for teenagers is what Botstein wants—he suggests that they
graduate at 16 and go on to other things such as joining the
work force, attending specialized schools for professional
training, or going to college where at least the teachers are not
there because they are popular, but because they are experts in
their fields, Botstein argues.
Thesis:​
It’s true that the American high school could change
for the better, but Botstein is wrong about the “poor quality of
recruitment and training for high school teachers.” High
school teachers are not selected based on popularity (main
idea for first body paragraph), and many of them are not only
experts in their fields, but far more effective teachers than the
college professors that Botstein claims to be preferred because
of their expertise within their fields (main idea for second ...

...the President of Bard College and as the author of Jefferson’s Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture. The article called “LetTeenagersTryAdulthood” first appeared in the Op/Ed section of the New York Times in 1999 after the Littleton (Columbine) shootings. Botstein writes that the categories of insiders and outsiders that are so popular in today’s high schools are shaped the way they are because there are damaging cliques that hold sway because of superficial definitions of attractiveness, popularity, and sports prowess. He points out that when student’s graduate high school and go on to college they finally understand what opportunities they missed and how much time is lost (21). Botstein writes that high schools as they are now are obsolete because they were made as a place to help young adults mature but that is not happening anymore because they grow up faster now than they did when high schools were made. Botstein points out that adults should realize that just because they don’t like dealing with young adults doesn’t meant adults should isolate teenagers that are growing up physically and hormonally in a high school setting to hide them from the real world. Given the poor quality of teachers and school administrators, who are more often chosen because they were coaches before, this means that when teenagers have trouble at school they are not qualified to...

...STAY STRONG
Ever tried.
Ever failed
No mater.
Try again.
Fail again.
Fail better.
You’ve heard about cases, you’ve also seen it through history, now I want you to live through it. Focus and start imagining what I’m going to say.
Imagine that you’re sitting in your room; your door is locked, with a pen in your hand and a black piece of paper in front of you. Your hand is shaking, and tears start falling down your cheeks again. “To my family” your write, “to my friends” you write, umm no, “to society” you write. Finding a way to start your letter, your suicide letter.
You try again, start over, again and again, you don’t know where to begin. There is no one that understands you; no one knows how you feel, or what you are going through. You think you’re alone but you aren’t. Nobody cares about you, nobody cares if you’re alive or not. Here comes night, you slip into bed. “Goodbye” you whisper. You take your last breath and end it all.
Nobody cares, right?
Well you thought wrong.
The next morning, when it’s 6:05 your mother comes and knocks your door. She doesn’t know you can´t hear anymore because you are not there anymore. She knocks a few more times, waiting for you to wake up and open up. There is no answer, there’s no way you can answer, and very mad she goes to her room and takes the key of your room. She comes back, opens it and screams.
She collapses while your dad rushes to your room. Your brothers have already left...

..."This family was a victim of a problem they could have avoided-a problem that, according to Florida park rangers, hundreds of visitors suffer each year." Several times a month," ranger Rod Torres of O'Leno State Park said, "people get scared and leave the park in the middle of the night." Those people picked the wrong kind of park to visit. Not that there was anything wrong with the park: The hikers camped next to them loved the wild isolation of it. But it just wasn't the kind of place the couple from New Jersey had in mind when they decided to camp out on this trip through Florida."
Here is an example of a student model answer of an Expository Essay from The Write Source:"Did you know that 7 out of 10 students have cheated at least once in the past year? Did you know that 50 percent of those students have cheated more than twice? These shocking statistics are from a survey of 9,000 U.S. high school students.Incredibly, teachers may even be encouraging their students to cheat! Last year at a school in Detroit, teachers allegedly provided their students with answers to statewide standard tests."Here is an another example of an expository essay.
This example comes from Essay Start:"Throughout history and through a cross-section of cultures, women have transformed their appearance to conform to a beauty ideal. Ancient Chinese aristocrats bound their feet as a show of femininity; American and European women in the 1800s cinched in their waists so tightly, some suffered...

...shouldn’t go to jail is that it is wrong to hold kids to adult standards. Children are not permitted to the same rights as an adult because of their inability to make wise decisions.Scientists have identified a “specific region of the brain called the amygdala which is responsible for instinctual reactions including fear and aggressive behavior.” This region develops early. However, the frontal cortex, the area of the brain that controls reasoning and helps us think before we act, develops later. For adolescents, this region of the brain is not fully grown yet.With time, this part of the brain is still changing and maturing well into a good adulthood, and with that, good decisions. So why should children be held to adult standards when they don’t have the same rights as them. For an example we don’t say, “This is a very important election so let’s let the kids vote”, right, so why should people say, “This case is different and this kid deserves to be treated as an adult and locked away in prison”. It doesn’t make sense. Lastly, children who commit crimes, even the ones who commit the most unforgivable of crimes, can be rehabilitated and become responsible adults. Children should not go to jail because at the time, you were too busy doing this and probably not thinking about your actions as you did. You just knew that you needed to have/do this, you weren’t thinking of other people. It’s after you got caught and were punished for it, that you...

... In today’s society, there has become a noticeable increase of teens that indulge in high-risk behaviors. As the vast amount of drug use, violence and depression in teenagers constantly arises in our society, it is clear that all three problem areas connect with to one another. The causes of these unfortunate problems amongst young adolescence are a mixture of influences through media, music/lyrics, technology and capitalism. In all fairness, these social norms are difficult to ignore and escape within the new generation of teenagers.
Underage drinking, violence and depression each have a connection to one another. These types of behaviors amongst teens relate to both my academic and professional goals because I plan on pursuing a career as a social worker. This job entails that I will be dealing with high-risk teens that are involved in domestic abuse, gang affiliations, substance abuse, school troubles, suicidal thoughts, and other rebellious antics. Keith A. Kings stated in his research that “teens experiencing depression are 12 times more likely to attempt suicide than teen’s not experiencing depression”. (King, 2012) Knowledge about at-risk teens will put me at an advantage and help me better identify with teens who engage in these behaviors.
It is important to have knowledge about why teens have these behavioral patterns. Influence through media and advertisements play apart but it also has to with the generation before them....